


Sentimental Gifts

by FireandAsh_ley



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ? - Freeform, Awkward gift giving, Fluff, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, so is lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 00:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17172257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireandAsh_ley/pseuds/FireandAsh_ley
Summary: Keith shows up unexpectedly on the castleship after a mission with the Blade to give something to Lance. Lance is understandably confused.





	Sentimental Gifts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [csmithman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/csmithman/gifts).



> For the happychat secret santa! I hope this is fluffy and focuses on Lance enough for you, Colleen!  
> I have no clue where this sits in canon. It’s after season 3 and kinda AU’s from there I guess. Keith is working in the Blade and Lance flies Red. That’s all that matters. And I have not seen seasons 7 or 8, cause fandom is being shitheads and I don’t need that negativity in my life, thanks. Please excuse any mistakes, It's been a very long time since I truly wrote something.

“Katar found it at a market on his last trip off planet! I did not think they ever made it this far out without being damaged in some way.”

Keith turned away from where he was supposed to be watching and learning the protocol of exchanging info with undercover Blade members and to the conversation behind him. The beings, some vaguely avian like aliens, were passing something back and forth at the fountain behind him.

“Isn’t it beautiful! I’d heard that they carried the sounds of water but I did not believe it to be to this extent!”

Well. If that didn’t sound much more interesting than watching Kolivan and the Blade walk past each other for the third time before going to adjacent market stands. With a final glance to make sure Kolivan hadn’t moved, Keith casually walked to the fountain, stopping a few times to keep up the appearance of shopping. Upon reaching the fountain, he hovered a few feet away and waited for one of the two to acknowledge him.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but can you tell me about that thing you have? I overheard you say it carried the sound of water?” Keith hoped that sounded polite enough. Shiro would consider it a personal failure if his hours of trying to teach him how to talk to strangers didn’t pay off.

Apparently those lessons were worth something as the avian people only looked mildly curious instead of cautious. “You mean the --------- shell?” The one on the left asked, pointing to their friend’s(?) hand/talon.

“Yes? I’m sorry my language comm couldn’t translate what you called it.” Nevermind, he was starting to regret leaving his post.

“Hmm, I believe most beings just call it a water shell? It comes from a planet in the Pwui galaxy. They are not normally traded this far out, most times you must go get one from the Lanea on their planet.” The one holding it said, handing it to Keith to look at for himself. Keith wasn’t sure if they smiled at him when he handed it back, or something else, but he got the answer he needed at least.

“Thanks.”

~*~

Lance stared out the window, curled under his blanket watching the stars pass outside. Not feeling the cold from the window was something he still couldn’t get over. Knowing how cold space was - and hot, he will never be able to forget that supernova and what the castle readings were saying about it. Sure, the castle was made by a super advanced race of aliens and there was no way their glass is the same as earth glass, but it looks like it! So he’d like to think he can be forgiven for expecting it to act the same!

Footsteps behind him brought Lance out of his musing about alien glass making and back to the present. Turning his head away from the window just as his intruder sat across from him.

“Keith?” Lance said, his face furrowing in surprise. “What are you doing here? Kolivan said you’d be gone for another week at minimum? Or at least that’s what it sounded like he meant...”

Resting back against the window, Keith gave Lance a small smile. “My comm got destroyed during the mission, and I had to stop on a planet with some Blades to get a message to Kolivan. While I was there I heard Voltron had been helping the neighboring planet not to long ago and I thought I’d see if you were still close by.”

“Wow, I think that’s the most forthcoming you’ve ever been with answering a quest-ow!” Lance bit back his smile and rubbed his arm where Keith smacked him, Keith’s own smile shining through even with his head turned away.

Lance resettled and offered Keith some of his blanket, Keith had clearly sought him out for a reason but it was still better to let him start the conversation.

“I wasn’t actually on a mission for the Blade.” Keith fidgeted with the pouch he wore on his belt, and wasn’t that weird. Keith fidgeting. “Or I guess I was but it was because I needed to go do something and Kolivan decided that I had to take a mission near there or he wouldn’t let me use a ship- and yeah…”

Lance waited, what was he supposed to say to that?

“Okay? Good for you buddy.” Silence made him awkward,and Lance could agree he kinda deserved the judging Look Keith sent, even if he would never admit he did.

Keith looked like he was having an internal battle, that he appeared to be losing. Lance looked back to space, determined to not make it awkward again, when something was dropped into his lap. Turning back, Keith was staring out the window again and Lance had a shell in his lap.

Huh.

Okay, start with the thing in your lap first. Deal with moody mulleted emos second. Lance picked up what seemed like a normal seashell. It honestly looked like a shell he could have gotten from any beach on Earth. “Uhh, care to maybe explain why I have seashell in my lap?”

“Listen...to it?” Keith unsurely suggested, as though he wasn’t the one who brought it. And he was _not cute_. Not even when he was clearly biting his lip.

Lance saw no harm in doing as asked, and brought the shell to his ear, his breath catching at the sound. Normal shells didn’t sound like this, you could hear the “ocean” in them sure. But this sounded like that and more.

(Years will go by and he’ll still swear that it was _magic Keith! You can hear waves crashing! I swear I heard a storm in it once!_ )

Lance startled as a hand gentle wiped at his check, not noticing the tears dripping down his checks until then. Carefully placing the shell in his lap, he flashed a smile at Keith and wiped his face clear. Keith didn’t seem convinced with him playing it off, but he did settle back down, which Lance appreciated.

They sat in silence, Lance didn’t know what to say about the unexpected gift. Was it even a gift? Keith just put it in his lap and said listen to it. He was contemplating making up some excuse to get the hell outta there when Keith spoke.

“Do you, uhh, want to talk? About that or…?”

Lance sighed, why the hell not. “Seashell are just a thing for my family. We challenge each other to see who can find the most in a time limit. We find ones in our favorite colors. We see who can get one with the best ocean sound. It’s just a thing. And my grandma used to tell the story about how she and my grandpa fell in love, and it involved a seashell as well. So it just hit me again how long it’s been since I’ve seen them.”

Keith’s expression said exactly how far out of his depth he felt by the sudden Emotions. Lance smiled and was ready to give Keith an out, a chance for him to leave without feeling guilty, when he surprised him again.

“Do you want to tell the story?”

~*~

_“Hey Keith, you ever been in love before?”_

_“...Yeah. Once.”_

_“How’d it go?”_

_“It didn’t. Never told ‘em.”_

_“Why not?”_

_“Never felt like the right time.”_

_“If you got the chance, would you tell them?”_

_“Maybe. It depends.”_

_“On what?”_

_“If he was ready to hear it. If I knew he’d believe me. If I got some signal that everything wouldn’t change if he didn’t feel the same.”_

_“I’ve heard grand gestures can help with that. You know, do something for him you wouldn’t do for someone else.”_

_“Like buy a gift for him?”_  
_“Yeah! Buy a gift for-oh.”_


End file.
